“He was a great speaker, very articulate and a very compassionate person,” said Cooper, a close friend of Aboud's since their days at Brooks. “He treated us as equals. All of us liked him.”

Aboud died Jan. 13 following a stroke. He was 89.

Born in Kinston, N.C., in 1923, Aboud served in World War II and then went to medical school for two years before being convinced to rejoin the military to study the effects of high altitudes on the body. It was the right decision.

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It resulted in a 30-year Air Force career that took Aboud's expertise to a variety of bases, including Brooks and Randolph in San Antonio, and Patrick AFB in Florida, where he worked with NASA astronauts on the effects of space flight.

“I even got to sit on their laps,” Ross said.

Her father, who wrote several scholarly articles on the effects of high-altitude environments and won a top award for his work from Spain's air force, retired as a colonel. He moved in the mid-'70s to San Antonio, the home of his wife, Elizabeth LaHood Aboud, and the city where the couple had met when he was stationed here.